InterviewStreamliner, a minimalist, free, open source, relational approach to computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software

InterviewStreamliner is a free, open source, minimalist alternative to complex computer-assisted qualitative data analysis packages. It builds on the flexibility of relational database management technology

Is the institutionalization of urban movements inevitable?

Abstract: In this article the opportunity structures of New York City and Amsterdam for organized squatting are compared. New York City knew two distinct squatting waves, with an intermission of several years. The literature on US urban movements predicts transformation through cooptation and repression. Only the first wave, in which housing activists used squatting as a tactic, fits this prediction. The second wave of squatting in New York City, and squatting in Amsterdam in general, escaped cooptation because they involved a squatters' movement proper, in which squatting was not only a tactic but also central to its existence. Compared to Amsterdam, squatting in New York was hampered by technical difficulties and political isolation. Stricter protection of private property made New York squatters restrict themselves to publicly-owned abandoned buildings. Turf conflicts tended to develop on the neighbourhood level when these buildings were later claimed for the development of low-income housing. In Amsterdam this type of conflict was rare because of the broad support for low-income (re)development. Instead, Amsterdam saw citywide protest directed at the real estate sector and municipal authorities. Cet article compare la structure des opportunités des villes de New York et Amsterdam concernant les squats organisés. New York a connu deux vagues de squattage séparées de plusieurs années. Les textes sur les mouvements urbains aux Etats-Unis prévoient une mutation par cooptation et répression. Seule la première vague, pour laquelle les militants en faveur du logement ont utilisé le squattage comme tactique, répond à cette prédiction. La seconde vague d'opérations à New York, et celles d'Amsterdam en général, ont échappéà la cooptation, car il s'agissait de mouvements de squatters à proprement parler, où le squat n'était pas seulement une tactique mais surtout un fondement de leur existence. Comparéà Amsterdam, le squattage à New York s'est heurtéà des problèmes techniques et à un isolement politique. La protection plus stricte de la propriété privée a forcé les squatters new-yorkais à se limiter aux bâtiments publics abandonnés. Des luttes de territoires ont eu tendance à se développer entre voisins lorsque ces bâtiments ont ensuite été réclamés pour aménager des logements à faible loyer. A Amsterdam, rare fut ce genre de conflit grâce au vaste soutien favorable au (ré)aménagement social; au contraire, une protestation générale s'est élevée à l'encontre du secteur immobilier et des autorités municipales

Performance and Quality of Working Life

An examination of the deep structure of the discourse on the organization of work shows that the most successful texts share a common structure: they construct an ideal model in which performance and quality go hand in hand. They provide explanations for the self-constructed gap between the model and reality, and recipes for change. This type of discourse has widespread appeal, but there are shortcomings attached to it: an inevitable neglect of the employment relation (and accordingly inadequate analysis of resistance to organizational change) and undue optimism about the quality of working life (thereby de-legitimizing efforts, such as in Scandinavian and Dutch working conditions legislation, to establish the quality of working life as a value in its own right). Critical and empirical evaluative alternative approaches seem unable to capture substantial mind share

Multiple Personalities: the Case of Business Process Reengineering

BPR can be deconstructed into four different identities. In the first place it is a product of the management fad industry. In the second place it is part of a neo-Taylorist movement because of the following characteristics: a top-down streamlining of operations, unproblematic acceptance of typical Taylorist solutions and the prevalence of assertions that the outcome for workers is an upgraded work content. In the third place BPR is a euphemism for downsizing. Downsizing is much more at the core of BPR than some of its proponents would have it. Finally, BPR functions as a non-normative, descriptive label for process oriented change. The paper seeks to show how the different identities of BPR interact and get into one another’s way

Het lot zelf in handen nemen. Empowerment in beweging

Empowerment – het tegenovergestelde van beheersing – is een centraal element in de ideologie van sociale bewegingen geworden. Maar ook daarbuiten is het een populair concept. Het concept wordt vaak enthousiast gepresenteerd als een win-win formule, waarbij zowel activisten als degene waarmee zij strijden profiteren. Het is echter ook vaak verworpen als een versluierende term waarachter het tegenovergestelde schuil gaat: zowel voor activisten als degene waarmee zij strijden, pakt empowerment uiteindelijk nadelig uit. Het concept is echter zelden systematisch bekeken. In dit artikel geef ik eerst aan wat empowerment inhoudt en waarom het moeilijk in zijn geheel door meer gangbare concepten vervangen kan worden. Ook laat ik zien dat het concept zijn wortels heeft in sociale bewegingen. Vervolgens ga ik in op interne tegenstellingen binnen het concept, en stel voor empowerment te zien als een balanceeract. Voorbeelden ontleen ik aan sociale bewegingen in Nederland, maar ook ver daarbuiten. Ten slotte ga ik in op de weerklank die empowerment – weliswaar vervormd – bijna overal in de samenleving heeft gevonden. Ik bekritiseer het idee dat sociale bewegingen als wegbereiders voor het neoliberalisme hebben gefungeerd en stel daartegenover dat de verspreiding van empowerment buiten de sociale bewegingen ook interventiemogelijkheden met zich meebrengt

The Logic of Urban Squatting

Abstract Existing frameworks tend to break when applied to the analysis of urban squatting. Five basic configurations, combinations of features that fit together well and are therefore effective, are discussed in this paper. In the case of squatting, configurations differ with respect to the characteristics of the people involved, type of buildings, framing, demands made by activists, mobilization and organization patterns. Each configuration also entails specific problems. Deprivation based squatting involves poor people who are distressed because of severe housing deprivation. In squatting as an alternative housing strategy people organize squatting to meet their own housing needs. Entrepreneurial squatting offers opportunities for setting up nearly any kind of establishment, without the need for large resources nor the risk of getting bogged down in bureaucracy. Conservational squatting involves squatting as a tactic used in the preservation of a cityscape or landscape against efficiency-driven planned transformation. Political squatting is a field of action for those who are engaged in anti-systemic politics

Kraken in Europa

De dynamiek van het kraken kan het best begrepen worden als wij onderscheid maken tussen vijf configuraties: 1 Op achterstelling gebaseerd kraken; 2 Kraken als een alternatieve huisvestingsstrategie; 3 Ondernemend kraken; 4 Conserverend kraken; 5 Politiek kraken. Elke configuratie is intern logisch consistent. Van elke configuratie zijn duidelijke voorbeelden te vinden

Repainting, modifying, smashing Taylorism

Abstract Survey data show that post-Tayloristic production concepts are not developing to the extent that many researchers had originally expected. It also is inadequate to portray post-Taylorism as a development that is happening, but just slower than expected. This is inadequate because there are counter-tendencies: the resurgence of the assembly line in the highly paradigmatic automobile assembly; the rise of the McDonalds-type organization; and continuing skills-replacing automation. An explanation for this persistence is sought. Considers possible reasons for decision makers to be attracted to Taylorism as well as reasons for disliking Taylorism. To some extent, it is possible for managers to work around these problems but there are ways to tackle these problems by making modifications to Tayloristic patterns, while keeping basic principles intact. Thus, adaptability is shown to be an important explanation for the resilience of Taylorism. Finally, the paper makes inferences from results obtained in organizations where a more radical break with Taylorism has been attempted

Employability, empowerment and employers, between debunking and appreciating action. Nine cases from the ICT sector

In 1951, C. W. Mills (58-59) wrote: "To be free and to be secure is to have an effective control over that upon which one is dependent: the job within the centralized enterprise". A key problem of our time is if and how employees can be free and secure by having an effective control over their employability. The aim for this paper is to contribute to the debate about this by focusing on the ICT sector, because it is characterized by rapid change which makes it a prototype for an employability- dependent careers pattern, and within this sector on companies whose management takes a keen interest in employability. The research question is: what are the implications of the new psychological contract based pursuit of employability by ICT companies? The paper starts with some conceptual clarification regarding employability and the new psychological contract, followed by a brief review of theoretical constraints. Then it outlines the employability-related challenges that work in the ICT field entails, and positions the nine companies studied as fairly exceptional, critical cases in terms of the interest shown in the issue of employability. In the empirical part of the paper implications and constraints are explored on the basis of 37 interviews with employees and managers in the companies